7 Shot Tennis: Seeing more of the point
From the last edition of The Point, I hope you have a picture of target area 7 (where good drop shots land) and target area 1 (where poor drop shots land). In general, if you’re keeping shots in the center corridor, you’re doing well if more of your shots land closer to the baseline (target area 3) than the service line (target area 2).
This short edition of The Point will discuss the “singles alleys”. The singles alleys are what’s left of the court after you remove the center corridor and target area 7. The singles alleys are the same width as the doubles alleys, they’re just inside the singles sidelines. So, there is one on the deuce side and one on the ad side of the court. Inside the singles alleys you will find target areas 4, 5 and 6.
Target area 4, or just “the 4”, is that area of the singles alley, where a shot lands closer to the baseline than the service line so long as it was hit on a diagonal.
Like the 4, the 5 is also hit on a diagonal; it lands in the singles alley closer to the service line than the baseline and beyond the 7; it’s just shorter than the 4 and may have a very sharp or severe angle. Watch when players hit a successful crosscourt passing shot against a net attacker. Chances are that’s a 5.
“The 6” is a down the line shot that lands in the singles alley. Again, if you see a good down the line passing shot, it’s probably a 6.
A while back I was reviewing a match video of a good college player with her. She was amazed by what she saw in that before viewing the video she thought her crosscourt shots were reaching the 4, but they weren’t. They kept dropping into the 3 or the 2. As a result, her shots weren’t having the impact she intended. Frustrated by this, she had a decision to make, keep hitting into the center corridor the rest of her tennis life, or venture out into the singles alleys when she had the opportunity. How about you?
Musicians have their seven notes. Artists who paint have three primary colors. Culinary artists can work wonders on your five basic tastes. Good tennis players learn to execute and then orchestrate the 7 shots in order to improve their match performance and level of play. Good players develop shots they can depend on. In addition to their best shots, they also learn and rely on their best plays, that is shots in combination with other shots.
Our view of tennis is that starting with the return of serve there are just seven shots and all shots are defined by where the ball landed and in the cases of the 4, the 5 and 6 the direction from which they were hit. It makes no difference whether a ball that landed in the 4 was hit from on top of the net or from 10 feet beyond the baseline, it’s a 4 so long as it was hit on a diagonal. Likewise, the 5. The 6 is a 6 because it was hit down the line into the singles alley. For shots that land in the 3, the 2, the 1 or the 7, we are less concerned about the direction from which they were hit.
So far, these 7 Shot Tennis articles have been giving you a picture of the other side of the net and where you want your shots to go. We’ve used mental representations to divide the court. In the next issue we’ll start looking at and getting an understanding your side of the net; where you are hitting from, and how that affects your shot selections.
These articles support information useful for Pro Level match charting certification offered at 7shottennis.com. Before taking this certification, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the publication “Standard TENNIS MATCH CHARTING and NOTATION“, published by 7 Shot Tennis, LLC… particularly the chapters pertaining to court layout and Level 1 match charting.